Volume 5 — Queries.

THE AGE OF TREES.—THE GREAT ELM AT HAMPSTEAD.

The question of the age of trees, introduced to your notice by your very able correspondent L. (Vol. iv., p. 401.), and touched upon by several others, is a subject of peculiar interest, and yet I scarcely know any ancient memorials which have been so much neglected by antiquarian inquirers. How seldom has any systematic attempt been made to collect the existing historical evidence relating to them, and of the few weak efforts which have been put forth in that direction, how insignificant have been the results! Such evidence exists in a great variety of quarters, and if your correspondents could be persuaded to adopt L.'s suggestion, and take up the matter in a really serious spirit, the nature of your publication, and the wide extent of your circulation, render your pages singularly well adapted for doing really effective service in a cause which is equally interesting to the naturalist and the antiquary. What is wanted is, that antiquarian students should bring forward the facts respecting historical trees which are to be found in ancient evidences of all kinds, and that local knowledge should be applied to the identification of such trees wherever it is possible. If this were done—done, that is, thoroughly and carefully—I cannot doubt that an antiquity would be satisfactorily established in reference to many trees and clumps of trees still existing throughout the kingdom, which it would now be thought supremely wild and fanciful even to imagine. I would not go the length of anticipating that we might establish the identity of some grove in which druidical mysteries have been celebrated, or (to adopt the words of Sir Walter Scott) of some "broad-headed, short-stemmed, wide-branched" monarchs of the forest, "which had witnessed the march of the Roman soldiery;" I should almost despair even of identifying the thorns on Ash Down (a place itself named from some celebrated tree), around which the battle raged between Alfred and the Danes: but every one at all acquainted with ancient documents knows how frequently they contain allusions to celebrated trees; and it is perfectly possible that trees which sheltered King John in his continual wild, impulsive, Arab-like flights from place to place, or under which the Edwards halted in their marches to Scotland or Wales, may yet be pointed out. I have no doubt that Evelyn saw evidence that the Tortworth Great Chestnut was a boundary tree in the days of King Stephen; and if such evidence is not now forthcoming, I by no means despair of its re-discovery, if any one will set himself seriously to search for it. We learn in Pepys,[3] that in his time, in the forest of Dean, there were still standing the old "Vorbid" or "forbid" trees of the time of Edward III.; that is (I presume), the trees which were left standing as marks or boundaries when there was a great felling of timber in the reign of Edward III. Perhaps some of your correspondents can tell us whether there are any such trees known in the forest of Dean now.

The recurrence of the mention of celebrated trees in early charters, is far more frequent than any one who has not examined the subject would suppose. There was no kind of "mark" or "bound" more common amongst ancient people, or more frequently mentioned in their written evidences, than large or celebrated trees. Any one may satisfy himself upon this point by a simple reference to Mr. Kemble's invaluable Codex Diplomaticus. I have just taken down the third volume of that work, and, dipping into it at random, at p. 448. I find the following, in the enumeration of the bounds of some lands at Brokenborough, in Wilts:—

"From thence to the mark which is called the Apple-Thorn, and from the same apple-bearing tree, by the public street, to Woubourne, and along the same water by a straight course to Geresbourne, and along the same stream in a straight course to Ordwoldes wood, which is now called Bradene, and through the same wood for about three miles to the boundary mark, which is called holehoke" [Holy Oak].

Here are intimations which must have been recognizable in the spot for centuries afterwards.

At p. 343. of the same volume, we read of "Kentwines Tree" at Shipford, and "Adulfes Tree" and "Hysemannes Thorn" at Mickleton. At p. 336. is mention of "the single thorn" by Ellenford, and the "Kolan Tree" and "Huredes Tree," near the same place. At p. 328. we read of "the Hundred Tree" at Winchendon. At p. 174. of "Dunemannes Tree" at Bladen.

In vol. v. at p. 297. we have a remarkable description of boundaries at Blewbury, in Berkshire, in which we read, if I interpret correctly:—

"From Hawkthorn [now Hackthorn] to the Long Thorn on the Ikenild way; thence to the Third Thorn at Wirhangran; thence to the Fourth Thorn which stands forward on Wrangan Hill; thence to the Fifth Thorn; thence to the Olive Tree; thence west along the bye road to the Thorn"—and so forth.

In the same description we read of several "Treowstealls," which mean, I suppose, clumps of trees, and amongst them of "Athelstanes Treowsteal."

In vol. vi. at p. 8. we read of "Frigedæges Tree," at Ginge, in Berkshire; at p. 60., of "Wiggerdes Tree," at Plush, in Dorsetshire; and innumerable other instances may be found throughout the book. These have occurred to me on just opening the volumes here and there, and are adduced merely to explain to persons unacquainted with the Codex Diplomaticus, the nature of the information upon this subject which it contains; and there are many other books from which similar facts may be derived.

The examples I have given exhibit the various parts which conspicuous trees were made to play in ancient times. The Holy Oak and Frigedæges Tree had, no doubt, been consecrated to superstition; the Hundred Tree marked a place for the general assembly of the people of a district; the trees distinguished by the prefixed names of individuals, indicated that they stood on the properties of private owners,—on lands, that is, which the owners had "called after their own names." The memory of many historical trees is probably preserved to the present day in the names of the fields in which they stood. How many Mickle Thorn coppices, and Broad Oak pastures, and Long Tree meadows, and Old Yew pieces are scattered over the country. How many hundreds, and other larger divisions of counties, are named after ancient trees. How many of the old Saxon names of our towns and hamlets indicate that they grew up around a well-known oak, or ash, or thorn, or yew; in like manner as, in later periods, when strength rather than law was the ruler, the people crowded together their hovels under the protective shadow of the castle of some powerful chieftain, or within the privileged precincts of some consecrated fane.

Having thus indicated, or rather enforced, a subject which I think well deserves the attention of your correspondents all over the world, allow me to conclude with a Query relating to a celebrated tree, of a comparatively modern date, which once existed in the neighbourhood of the metropolis.

THE GREAT ELM AT HAMPSTEAD.—Where did it stand? What was its ultimate fate? When and how was it compelled to yield to the great leveller? It is delineated in a very scarce engraving by Hollar, which bears the date of 1653, and which is found on a poetical commemorative broadside, printed in that year. This tree, although then in full leaf, or so represented in Hollar's engraving, was entirely hollow. A staircase of forty-two steps had been contrived within its stem, by means of which visitors ascended to a turret erected on the top, which was capacious enough to give seats to six persons, and to contain twenty persons in the whole. The stem of the tree was twenty-eight feet in compass on the ground, and the ascent to the turret was thirty-three feet. The tree must have stood on some of the highest ground at Hampstead, for it is said that six neighbouring counties could be seen from the top of it. The Thames is mentioned as visible from it, with its shipping; and the following lines indicate the wide expanse which it commanded. The lines were written just at the time when Cromwell was about to assume the Protectorate.

Such was the entire command of the country which this tree enjoyed, that it is said that

"Essex Broad Oak" [where did that stand?] from which more than twenty miles could be seen, is poetically declared to have been "but a twig" in comparison with his relative at Hampstead; to find whose equal it is stated that

There are other things worth remembering in connexion with this wonder of Hampstead: but I have occupied already more than enough of your space, and will only express my hope that some one will tell us where the Hampstead tree stood, and what was its fate; and what is known about the Essex Broad Oak; and what also about the Bordeaux compeer of the tree monarch of Hampstead.

JOHN BRUCE.

Minor Queries.

"Inveni portum"—"For they, 'twas they."

—You will much oblige me by permitting me to ask, through the medium of your entertaining publication, from whence the two following quotations were cited:

The first will be found in Gil Blas, livre 10ième, chapitre 10ième; and the second is used by the renegade Paul Jones in his mock-heroic epistle to the Countess of Selkirk, in extenuation of his having plundered the family seat in Scotland of the plate, on the 23rd April, 1778.

I should not trouble you, but I have asked many, of extensive reading and retentive memories, for solution of these Queries ineffectually.

AMICUS.

Matthew Walker.

—Can any of your correspondents, learned in naval antiquities and biographies, give any account of Matthew Walker, whose knot (described and figured in Darcy Lever's Sheet Anchor) is known by his name all over the world; and truly said to be "a handsome knot for the end of a Lanyard?"

REGEDONUM.

Aleclenegate.

—The east gate of the town of Bury St. Edmund's, which was always under the exclusive control of the abbot, is sometimes mentioned as "the Aleclenegate." What is the origin of the word?

BURIENSIS.

Smothering Hydrophobic Patients.

—I can recollect, when I was a boy, to have been much surprised and horrified with the accounts that old people gave me, that it was the practice in decided cases of rabies canina to suffocate the unfortunate patient between feather beds. The disease being so suddenly and so invariably fatal, where it appeared unequivocally to attack the sufferer, might dispose the world to ascribe the death to what surely may be termed foul play; but perhaps some of your readers may be able to state where mention is made of such treatment, or what could give rise to such an opinion in the public mind.

INDAGATOR.

Philip Twisden, Bishop of Raphoe.

—In Haydn's Book of Dignities, p. 475., there is the following note on the name of the prelate:—

"Sir James Ware, or, more properly, the subsequent editors of his works, narrate some very extraordinary circumstances that rendered the close of the life of this prelate very remarkable and unfortunate; but we feel unwilling to transcribe them, though there seems to be no doubt of their truth."

As Sir James Ware died in 1666, and the latest edition of his work on the Bishops of Ireland (by Walter Harris) was published in 1736, it is impossible that either he, or his subsequent editors, could have recorded anything of the last days of a prelate who died Nov. 2, 1752.

Mr. Haydn, however, speaks as if he had actually before him the mysterious narrative which he has gone so far out of his way to allude to, and which for some equally mysterious reason he was "unwilling to transcribe," although he thought it necessary to call attention to it, and to express his inclination to believe in its truth.

If this should meet his eye, would Mr. Haydn have the kindness to say where he found the story in question, as it is certainly not in Ware? I know of two stories, one of which is probably that to which Mr. Haydn has called the attention of his readers; but I have never seen them stated with such clearness, or on such authority, as would lead me to the conclusion that "there seemed no doubt of their truth."

JAMES H. TODD.

Trinity College, Dublin.

"Sir Edward Seaward's Narrative," edited by Miss Jane Porter.

—I am in possession of a copy of the above work, presented to my father by the late amiable authoress, Miss Porter. It is, as you are no doubt aware, a journal of adventure in the Carribean Sea and its islands, between 1733 and 1749; but on the publication of the first edition its authenticity was questioned, and a suggestion made by some of the critics that the editor was also the author. This, Miss Porter assured me was not the fact, and that the work is a genuine diary, placed in her hands for publication by the family, still existing, of the original writer. The name I think she intimated was not Seaward, but she expressed some hesitation to detail the circumstances of its coming into her possession. She makes, in a preface to the second edition, an assurance to the same effect as to the genuineness of the Narrative, and says the author died at his seat in Gloucestershire in the year 1774.

Can any of your readers throw further light on this story, or inform who the hero of the Narrative really was?

W.W.E.T.

Warwick Square, Belgravia.

Clerical Members of Parliament.

—In a note in p. 4. of The Lexington Papers, recently published, mention is made of a Mr. Robert Sutton, who, after having taken deacon's orders, and having accompanied his relative, Lord Lexington, to Vienna, in the joint capacity of chaplain and secretary, was, on his recall in 1697, appointed resident minister at the Imperial Court; was subsequently sent as envoy extraordinary to the Ottoman Porte; in 1720, succeeded Lord Stair as British minister at Paris; in 1721, was elected M.P. for Notts; and in 1725, was created Knight of the Bath. The editor adds this remark:

"It is well known that holy orders were not at that time considered any disqualification for civil employments, but I do not recollect any other instance of a clerical Knight of the Bath."

Do you, Mr. Editor, or any of your readers, recollect any other instance since the Reformation, of a clerical member of parliament, before the celebrated one of Horne Tooke? Were any such instances quoted in the debates on the bill for excluding clergymen from Parliament?

CLERICUS.

Allens of Rossull.

—Can any of you correspondents furnish me with the arms borne by the Allens of Rossull and Redivales, Lancashire? Of this family was the celebrated Cardinal Allen. Also the arms borne by the Pendleburys, another Lancashire family?

J.C.

Number of the Children of Israel.

—In Exod. xii. 37. it is stated that the numbers of the children of Israel constituting the Exodus was "600,000 men," "besides children." No specific mention is made of women: it will be diminishing the difficulty if the 600,000 are considered the aggregate of the adults of both sexes. It is said that the time the Israelites remained in Egypt was 430 years (Ex. xii. 40.). The number who were located in Egypt was seventy (Gen. xlvi. 27.). I wish to ascertain from some competent statistician what, under the most favourable circumstances, would be the increase of seventy people in 430 years? I am aware that Professor Lee, in his invaluable translation of the Book of Job, is of opinion that 215 years is the time the Israelites actually remained in Egypt; and the remainder must be considered the previous time they were in Canaan. If the Professor's calculation be adopted, the statistician could easily show the difference at 215 and 430 years.

ÆGROTUS.

Computatio Eccles. Anglic.

—In Bishop Burnet's "Hist. of the Reform.," vol. ii. of first folio edition, London, 1679, Coll. of Records, b. ii. p. 100. No. XL. is "An instrument of the speech of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Chicheley) made to the House of Commons about it," scilicet, Statute of Provisors. It begins as follows:—

"Die Veneris, penultimo mensis Januarii, A.D. secundum cursum et computationem Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ millesimo quadringentesimo decimo septimo, indictione sexta, pontificatus.... Martini Papæ quinti anno undecimo."

Now as Martin V. was chosen Pope by the Council of Constance, November 11, 1417, his eleventh year would extend over January, 1428, and the sixth indiction answers to the same year, which would, however, be styled 1427 in ecclesiastical documents till March 25. Can the Computatio Eccles. Anglic. mean anything more than a reference to the distinction between the ecclesiastical and historical times of commencing the year? If it does not, decimo septimo must be an error for vicesimo septimo, made in transferring the numeral letters into words. Has this error been corrected in subsequent editions of Burnet?

H.W.

Martinique.

—Will any of your correspondents, acquainted with the history of the French islands, inform me why was the island of Martinique so called? English writers style the island Martinico, but none have gone so far as to give the derivation or meaning of the word.

W.J.C.

St. Lucia.

Objective and Subjective.

—Will some of your intelligent readers deign to enlighten a merely physical ignoramus as to the precise meaning (always supposing there be a meaning) of the oft-recurring words "objective" and "subjective" ("omjective" and "sumjective," according to Mr. Carlyle) in the Highgate "talk", supposed by sundry transcendental sages of our day to be the expression of an almost inspired wisdom. Is this exoteric jargon translateable into intelligible English? or is it not (as Chalmers called it, speaking Scottice) "all buff?" Most assuredly he who really understands it (not affects to understand it) need not, as Southey used to say, be afraid of cracking peach-stones.

X.

Quarter Waggoner.

—The master of a ship of war has the charge of navigating her from port to port, under the direction of the captain; and he is moreover charged to make what improvements he can in the charts. Now the masters were sometimes rather slack in the latter department, in which case they procured certificates from their captains to the Navy Board, stating that they had seen nothing but what was already in the general "Quarter Waggoner."

Can any of your correspondents describe this Quarter Waggoner? And, as the master keeps the official log-book, can you kindly tell me how that recondite volume came to be so designated?

W. H. SMYTH.

Sir Roger Wilcock.

—Can any of your antiquarian readers favour me with the armorial ensigns of Sir Roger Wilcock, knight, whose daughter and heiress, Agnes, was wife to Sir Richard Turberville, of Coyty Castle, in Glamorganshire, and by him mother of two sons, Sir Payn, afterwards Lord of Coyty, and Wilcock Turberville, who by his wife Maud, heiress of Tythegstone, in the same county, was ancestor of the Turbervilles of that place, and of Penlline Castle.

The lineage of this ancient and knightly family of Turberville is not given correctly in Burke's Dictionary of the Landed Gentry for the year 1847. The marriage of Christopher Turberville of Penlline (sheriff for Glamorgan in 1549 and 1568) with Agnes Gwyn,[5] heiress of Ryderwen in the county of Caermarthen, and widow of Henry Vaughan, Esq., is altogether omitted in Burke, and for the correctness of which see Lewis Dwnn's Heraldic Visitation into Wales and its Marches, vol. ii. (near the commencement) title "Ryderwen;" and in vol. i. of the same work, p. 140., title "Ystradcorwg," Catherine, the issue of that marriage, and one of the daughters and coheiresses of Christopher Turberville, is mentioned as the wife of David Lloyd of that place, in the parish of Llanllawddog, co. Caermarthen, sheriff in 1590 and 1601. In further corroboration of this, we find that the Lloyds of Glanguelly and Ystradcorwg, descendants of the said marriage, ever afterwards quartered the arms of Turberville, viz. "chequy or and gu. a fesse ermine," with their own paternal shield. It is not improbable that the marriage of Christopher Turberville with the aforementioned Agnes, kinswoman of the Rices, may have had some influence in allaying the deadly animosity which had previously existed between the rival houses of Dynevor and Penlline.

Again, in vol. iv. of Burke's History of the Commoners for the year 1838, Jenkyn Turberville of Tythegstone, fourth in descent from Wilcock Turberville, is stated to have wedded Florence, daughter of Watkyn ab Rasser Vaughan, and to have had issue by her two sons, Richard,[6] who continued the line at Tythegstone, and Jenkyn, father of the said Christopher, of Penlline Castle, Glamorgan. By reference to Lewis Dwnn's work, edited by the late talented and much lamented antiquary, Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick, article "Vaughan of Bretwardine, co. Hereford, and Pembrey Court, Caermarthenshire," we find that Jenkyn Turberville married Denis, daughter of Watkyn ab Sir Roger Vaughan, knight, with the following remark in Welsh: "Ag ni bu dim plant o Derbil iddi ag wedi guraig Morgan ab Jenkyn gur Tre Dineg;" that is to say, "She had no children by Turberville, and she afterwards became the wife of Morgan ab Jenkyn,"—I presume, of Tredegar, in Monmouthshire. Is it not, therefore, likely that he married twice; that his first wife was Cecil Herbert, and the mother of his two sons?

A correct lineage of the Turbervilles, with the ensigns they were entitled to quarter, down to Christopher Turberville's co-heiress Catherine, the wife of David Lloyd, would greatly oblige.

W. G. T. T.

Caermarthen.

Ruffles, when worn.

—At what time did the fashion of wearing ruffles come in? and when did it go out?

Many persons living at the present time remember their being generally worn in respectable, and occasionally in what may be called minor life.

The clergy did not wear them.

So general was their use in the early part of the reign of George III., that the Rev. William Cole, of Milton, in the account of his Journey to France, in 1765, says he was taken for an English clergyman because he did not wear them, and in consequence addressed "M. l'Abbé."

Dr. John Ash.

—I should feel exceedingly obliged by information respecting the birth-place and early history of Dr. John Ash, formerly an eminent physician practising in Birmingham, and the founder of the General Hospital in that town. He was a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford; his doctor's degree was taken in 1764. He died at Brompton, Knightsbridge, in 1798. Every available source has been searched in vain for information on this subject. It is required for literary purposes.

F. RUSSELL.

Minor Queries Answered.

Mutabilitie of France.

—Upon the books at Stationers' Hall, Lib. C., under the year 1597, 20th April, Thomas Creed entered A Treatise of the Mutabilitie of Fraunce from the yeare of our Lorde 1460 untill the yeare of our Lorde 1595. Can any of your readers say in what library a copy of this treatise can be found?

INDAGATOR.

[A copy is in the Bodleian library. The full title is, "The Mutable and Wavering Estate of France, from 1460 to 1595; together with an Account of the Great Battles of the French Nation both at Home and Abroad. 4to. Lond. Tho. Creede, 1597."]

Caldoriana Societas.

—A copy of the Latin Bible of Junius and Tremellius, now in my possession, has on the title:

Will you kindly inform me who constituted this body, and why they were so called?

QUIDAM.

[Cotton, in his Typographical Gazetteer, has given the following notices of this body:—

"Caldoriana Societas, qu. at Basle or Geneva? An edition of Calepine's Lexicon, fol. 1609, bears for imprint Sumptibus Caldorianæ Societatis." "An edition of the controversies between Pope Paul V. and the Venetians, bears for imprint, 'In Villa Sanvincentiana apud Paulum Marcellum, sumptibus Caldorianæ Societatis, anno 1607,' but is by no means of Spanish workmanship. I rather judge that the whole of the tracts connected with this business, which profess to have been printed at various places, as Augsburg, Saumur, Rome, Venice, &c., have their origin in the Low Countries, and proceeded from the presses of Antwerp, Rotterdam, or the Hague."]

Millers of Meath.

—The millers of the county of Meath, in Ireland, keep St. Martin's day as a holiday. Why?

Ω.

[Because of the honour paid to St. Martin in the Western Church, whose festival had an octave. Formerly it was denominated Martinalia, and was held with as much festivity as the Vinalia of the Romans. Among old ecclesiastical writers, it usually obtained the title of the Second Bacchanal:

Thus translated by Barnabie Googe:

Kissing under the Mistletoe.

—What is the origin of kissing under the mistletoe?

AN M.D.

[Why Roger claims the privilege to kiss Margery under the mistletoe at Christmas, appears to have baffled our antiquaries. Brand states, that this druidic plant never entered our sacred edifices but by mistake, and consequently assigns it a place in the kitchen, where, says he, "it was hung up in great state, with its white berries; and whatever female chanced to stand under it, the young man present either had a right, or claimed one, of saluting her, and of plucking off a berry at each kiss." Nares, however, makes it rather ominous for the fair sex not to be saluted under the famed Viscum album. He says, "The custom longest preserved was the handing up of a bush of mistletoe in the kitchen, or servants' hall, with the charm attached to it, that the maid who was not kissed under it at Christmas, would not be married in that year."]

Trinity Chapel, Knightsbridge.

—Was Trinity Chapel, Knightsbridge, which has been rebuilt several times, ever parochial? Can I be referred to any memoir of the Rev. —— Gamble, Chaplain to H. R. H. the Duke of York, who in the early part of the present century was minister of it?

H. G. D.

[The chapel, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, belonged originally to an ancient hospital, or lazar-house, under the patronage of the abbot and convent of Westminster. It was rebuilt in 1629, at the cost of the inhabitants, by a license from Dr. Laud, then Bishop of London, as a chapel of ease to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, within the precincts of which parish it was situated; but the site was subsequently assigned to the parish of St. George, Hanover Square, and at present forms a part of that of Kensington. The Rev. J. Gamble was minister of this chapel in 1794-5; in 1796 he was appointed chaplain of the forces, and in 1799 rector of Alphamstone, and also of Bradwell-juxta-Mare, in Essex. In 1805 he was married to Miss Lathom of Madras, by whom he had a son. His death took place at Knightsbridge, July 27, 1811.]

"Please the Pigs."

—Whence have we this very free translation of Deo Volente?

PORCUS.

[This colloquial phrase is generally supposed to be a corruption of "Please the Pyx," a vessel in which the Host is kept. By an easy metonymy, the vessel is substituted for the Host itself, in the same manner as when we speak, in parliamentary language, of "the sense of the House,"—we refer not to the bricks and stones, but to the opinion of its honourable members.]

Meaning of Barnacles.

—Can any of your readers throw any light on the term "barnacles," which is constantly used for "spectacles"? I need not say that the word in the singular number is the name of a shell-fish.

PISCATOR.

[Phillips, in his World of Words, tells us that "among farriers, barnacles, horse-twitchers, or brakes, are tools put on the nostrils of horses when they will not stand still to be shoed," &c.; and the figure of the barnacle borne in heraldry (not barnacle goose, which is a distinct bearing), as engraved in Parker's Glossary of Heraldry, sufficiently shows why the term has been transferred to spectacles, which it must be remembered were formerly only kept on by the manner in which they clipped the nose.]

The Game of Curling.

—As an enthusiastic lover of curling, I have been trying for some time past to discover any traces of the origin of the game, and the earliest mention made of it: but, I am sorry to say, without success.

I should therefore feel much obliged to any of your correspondents who could inform me concerning the origin of this game, and also any works which may treat of it.

"JOHN FROST."

Paisley.

[Appended to Dr. Brewster's account of curling, quoted in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, vol. xvii. p. 469., occurs the following historical notice of this winter amusement:—"Curling is a comparatively modern amusement in Scotland, and does not appear to have been introduced till the beginning of the sixteenth century, when it probably was brought over by the emigrant Flemings. It was originally known under the name of kuting, which perhaps is a corruption of the Teutonic kleuyten, kalluyten, rendered by Kilian in his Dictionary, ludere massis sive globulis glaciatis, certare discis in æquore glaciatâ. In Canada it has become a favourite amusement, on account of the great length of the winters."]